April 23, 2025 • 19 mins
Financial stress doesn't just stay in our personal lives—it seeps into our businesses, affecting our decision-making and causing us to make choices we wouldn't normally make just to get more money into our personal accounts. Breaking the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle requires understanding that money is emotional and developing a system that works without giving up everything you love.
• Money is emotional—it's our family, home, and to some extent, our identity
• Financial stress manifests as sleep loss, mental disconnection, and constant anxiety even when physically present with loved ones
• Making more money doesn't automatically solve financial problems—clients earning $25,000 and $250,000 face the same issues
• Key #1: Be proactive with finances by identifying meaningful financial goals that motivate you through difficult months
• Key #2: Create a system with three core accounts—bills, spending, and savings—to separate fixed expenses from variable spending
• Key #3: Find flexibility and sustainability by avoiding extreme approaches that lead to burnout and quitting
• 69% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings, and 34% have zero savings according to recent studies
• Financial systems should match your personality and life stage—what works during single life might not work with young children
In the description is a link to meet with one of our coaches for a free 20-minute call where we'll get to know you and see if our program is a good fit for you. Whatever you do, take action. The worst place to be is spinning your wheels wishing things would change but not going anywhere.
Get our FREE Personal Finance Snapshot to help you get organized with your money.
Meet with one of our coaches
*Intro/outro song credit:
King Around Here by Alex Grohl
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I know firsthand how being stressed about your
personal finances can leak intoyour business.
Sometimes the anxiety we havearound where we stand
financially budgeting debt,whatever it is that we're
struggling with it can affectour day-to-day operations in the
business and affect us asbusiness owners.
It can make us make emotionaldecisions and do things that
(00:23):
maybe we wouldn't do normallybecause we are trying so
desperately to get more moneyhome and into our personal bank
accounts.
Well, sometimes the solution tothis is to generate more
revenue in the business so thatwe can pay ourselves more, and
to get organized on the businessside so that the business can
afford to pay us biggerpaychecks and we have plenty of
episodes on that.
But today I'm going to talkabout the personal finance side
(00:46):
of how can you break thepaycheck to paycheck cycle
without giving up everythingthat you love.
My name is Craig and I'm theowner of Daisy Financial
Coaching.
Our team is on a mission tomake your therapy practice
permanently profitable.
If you own a solo or grouppractice, we're here to help you
build a business that createsmore time, makes more money and
(01:07):
serves more people.
This is the Therapy BusinessPodcast.
Something that I think we oftenforget is that money is
emotional.
It's easy to look at it asnumbers on a spreadsheet or
dollars in a bank account, buttruthfully it's emotional.
It's our family, it's our home.
(01:28):
To an extent, it can be ouridentity.
It's how the world measuressuccess and value.
Whether that's true or not, itis the standard that we put
ourselves against, and money isat the root of all of that.
Now, I'm not saying that's howit should be.
I don't think it should be thatway, but when we come down to
(01:49):
it and if we're trying toaddress this issue of getting
organized, getting clarity,breaking the check-to-check
cycle, we have to trulyunderstand what money is to us
and we have to try and realizethat it's not as simple as maybe
we've always thought it was.
Yes, fixing this might besimple on paper, but there's a
(02:10):
reason it's been challenging.
There's a reason that maybeyou've been stuck in this
hamster wheel cycle that's gonearound and around and haven't
been able to break free of it.
Money is emotional and when weare stressed about money, most
people are feeling unconfident.
They're feeling overworked andoverwhelmed.
They feel like they're on thebrink of burnout or just like
(02:31):
one emergency away fromimploding.
I don't know if any of thoseresonate with you.
I know they do with me.
I know that feeling when youdon't have enough money in your
bank account and you go to startthe car and there's just like a
little ping in the back of yourbrain of, oh my gosh, what if
it doesn't start, or what if thetire goes out, or what if
something happens?
Or I've had times where I'mafraid to check my email out of
(02:53):
fear that maybe a client's goingto cancel and because I'm so
stressed financially on thepersonal side that's leaking
into the business and I'mfreaking out over that.
I'm preemptively afraid to evenlook because if that happens
then great, I'm even in a biggerissue.
Now that's how we're feeling,but that can even lead us to
(03:15):
showing up differently in ourworld.
It can show up in ways likelosing sleep or maybe just not
even sleeping well.
Maybe you're not up all nightjust ruminating over the
financial issues, but maybeyou're just finding yourself
fatigued all the time.
We find a lot of times this isbecause our body is in that kind
of fight or flight stance andit's truthfully, it has a hard
(03:36):
time resting when we have thisanxiety leaking in the back of
our brain.
Our body is trying to keep ussafe, and so, therefore, we are
naturally not sleeping very well.
I mean, I've heard people say,if you're in danger, your body
would not be doing you justiceif it let you sleep.
And right now, if you're infinancial stress, you're sending
signals to the body that youare in danger, so it's keeping
(03:58):
you awake, it's keeping you fromsleeping too deeply.
A lot of times we feel likewe're robbing Peter to pay Paul.
We're working long hours justto make ends meet, and the way
it shows up for me is that mybody is present, but my mind
isn't.
My wife would always tell meshe's like where are you right
now?
You feel like you'vedisconnected, and she's not
wrong.
When I'm feeling money stress,I disconnect.
(04:19):
I can be sitting there playingwith my son or my daughter and
my body's there playing, but mybrain is a million miles away
and I know I know they pick upon it.
If any of these resonate withyou, just know that you're not
alone.
This is what we see all thetime.
When people come to meet with usas clients, when they come and
sit down with us for the firsttime, we hear them say things
(04:41):
like that.
We hear them talk about howtheir accounts are always in the
negative or they're livingpaycheck to paycheck, or they're
struggling to make things endsmeet, that things are a mess,
that they've never really beenable to stick to a system and
they've always made it toocomplicated.
Here's where the problemsometimes lies.
Is that what most people thinkis the solution isn't?
(05:01):
Sometimes we're thinking all Igot to do is make more money and
then the problem will be solved.
Maybe if I just cut all the funout of our budget?
Or maybe if we try thisbudgeting software.
Or hey, I've been listening tothis podcast or this book or
watching this YouTube channel orwhatever it is, and I'm getting
these ideas in my head and theythink that that's the solution.
(05:22):
One of the most common ones isgoing to the extreme.
There are financial gurus outthere like Dave Ramsey, who you
know.
I'm not dogging on Dave Ramsey.
I think his methodology worksfor a lot of people.
We used his plan to getourselves out of debt and to get
ourselves on a budget.
However, I do know, as I'vebeen doing this business, that a
lot of people come to us andthey've failed because of that
(05:43):
extreme level.
If you're not familiar, daveRamsey is very big on what he
would call scorched earth.
You don't spend a dime anywhere, you don't go out to eat, you
don't do anything.
You focus all your money ondebt and you focus on paying
debt off immediately first.
And what can often happen withthat is sometimes people burn
out.
People don't quite make it tothe end.
(06:05):
They have tried it.
They realize maybe their kidsare you know.
They're bouncing back and forthbetween soccer and volleyball
and baseball practice and theyhave to go to a drive-through
and then they throw up theirhands and give up because it is
just too challenging.
So that scorched earthmethodology doesn't work for
everyone.
It can lead to burnout.
Earning more money doesn'talways solve the problem.
(06:26):
It can.
Oftentimes our behaviors willexpand with the money.
If we have more money, we'rejust gonna start spending more
and we're gonna be frustrated.
We've worked with clients whomake $25,000 a year and we've
worked with clients who makemore than $250,000 a year and
they are struggling with thesame issues.
So it does not have anything todo with money.
(06:46):
Yes, more income can help a lotof things, but if we don't
address the deeper root problem,it's not going to solve
anything.
And then budgeting, softwaresand things like that.
Those are just tools that wecan use, but we need a system
under that.
So I'm going to guide youthrough what we call just the
three keys to solving thispaycheck to paycheck cycle.
(07:06):
And I'm going to warn you,these are going to sound really
simple.
They're going to sound probablyalmost obvious to you, but what
I'm going to challenge you onthis is yes, they may sound
simple and obvious, but whatwe're going to look deep into
ourselves with is, if it's sosimple, if it's so obvious, why
am I struggling with it?
Why have I not been able to doit?
And oftentimes, because it's sosimple and because it's so
(07:29):
obvious, we start beatingourselves up and we start
talking down on ourselves andthinking negatively on ourselves
because why can't I do this?
It's not hard.
What am I struggling with?
So just know they're simple andobvious and you're not alone,
because just because it's simpledoesn't mean that it's easy.
Step one is to be proactive withyour finances.
Our natural tendency is to bereactive.
(07:52):
When money's good, we spend.
When money's tight, we stressout.
So this is kind of how we goabout it we look at our bank
account to make decisions as themonth starts coming to a close
and we're getting closer andcloser to our next paycheck, we
look down and we start freakingout because money's getting
tight.
So we tell everyone no morespending money.
We just did this a couplemonths ago.
I told my family I was like weare not going out to eat again
(08:13):
until the month starts becausewe had just gone crazy going out
to eat.
To be proactive, we have to havegoals.
What are we trying to achieve?
What are we trying to do?
What is that carrot that we'rerunning toward?
What do we really want?
And just saying I want to getout of debt or I want to be more
in control of my money, yeah,that's great.
But realistically, what do wewant?
(08:33):
Do we want to be able to goshopping and not have to stress
about what we have in theaccount?
We want to be able to takethose vacations multiple times a
year.
Maybe you want to quit your joband you want to get your
finances stable enough so thatyou can leave and maybe take
another job somewhere else orjust go to a single income
household.
Whatever it is.
What do you want?
(08:53):
That's key.
We have to have that in mind inorder to be proactive, and then
budgeting is great, but what isit supporting?
So this kind of goes back tothat carrot.
Budgeting is challenging.
You're gonna have great monthsand you're gonna have really,
really difficult months, and toget through those difficult
months, we have to know whywe're doing this.
(09:14):
What is really the core point?
Now, like I said, this soundscrazy simple.
Right, just be proactive.
Right, hey, just get ahead ofit.
Stop reacting to everything.
Just have a plan.
Sounds simple, but here's thething this is a skill that needs
to be developed.
No one is born proactive withmoney.
No one is born with this, justin their DNA.
(09:36):
It's something that we have tobe taught and unfortunately, in
America, we are not taught thisat an early age.
Our parents weren't taught this, their parents weren't taught
this, and so we are usuallythrust into the world to figure
this out on our own, and thepeople who are teaching us these
things are the banks and thecredit card companies and
(09:57):
commercials and all of thoseitems or people that we find on
YouTube who maybe are spoutingout bad information.
We don't know.
We're learning it from allthese outside sources and then,
all of a sudden, we realize wedon't have the skills to put
some of these things into place.
Even if it was good informationthat we're hearing, it's a
skill that needs to be developed, that takes practice.
(10:18):
That means, if you feel likeyou are bad with money which I
don't think anyone's bad withmoney but if you're like you
know, I'm just bad with it, I'mnot good with money yet we're
going to get you there.
It's that growth mindset piece.
How do we get there?
Once we are proactive, once wehave this idea of what are you
running to and that's going tobe a homework assignment for you
.
If you don't know why you wantto get your money together,
(10:41):
write it down.
What does life look like foryou on the other side of this?
What are you trying to do?
What do you want to do withyour family?
What do you want to do withyour kids?
Do you want to vacation more?
Do you want to just be able toorder whatever you want on
Amazon without worrying aboutyour bank account?
What is it that you want toachieve at nicer restaurants and
(11:02):
not get a heart attack when thebill comes or feel like you
can't order a second drink.
Figure out what that is, writeit down so that you know.
Deep down.
It's what a lot of people calltheir quote unquote why.
Why are we doing this?
Step two is to have a system.
Again, sounds obvious, but 69%of people in America have less
than $1,000 in savings.
That's according to Forbes.
And according to CNBC, 34% have$0 in their savings accounts.
(11:26):
72% of people have no moneyplan at all, according to
Charles Schwab.
So we talk about having asystem.
That sounds so easy, it soundsso simple, but we're not doing
it.
Most people aren't doing it.
Budgeting by itself isn'tenough.
So what is that plan that we'regoing to follow in order to
(11:47):
make all these things happen?
We want to keep it simple.
We want to leverage yourbehavior.
What are you already doing?
We already talked about it.
When we're reactive, we'relooking at our bank account how
much money do I have?
And then we're making decisionsbased on that.
We are believers in having.
We are believers in utilizingwhat we're already doing to get
ourselves organized.
(12:07):
If you've listened to previousepisodes of this podcast, I talk
a lot about doing that in yourbusiness through a system called
Profit First.
We have personal financecoaches on our team who work
with individuals and theirpersonal finances and they teach
them to utilize multiple bankaccounts.
I'm going to share the threethat we genuinely believe every
person should have, and a lot ofpeople like to have more, but
(12:28):
we think at least having threeis going to really help give you
some clarity With that, though.
Budgeting software some of youmay be trying to use every
dollar.
Some of you may be trying touse Monarch money, or you need a
budget, and those are awesome.
They're very good, but actuallyapplying it is where we need
something deeper than that.
So you, that's kind of a like Isaid before, it's a tool.
(12:50):
Those are tools to help you,but if you don't have a system
below that, then it's reallyreally difficult to get those up
and off the ground.
So, with that, a system for yourpersonal finances, we believe
in three core accounts.
We want to have a bills account.
This is for all your recurringbills, your fixed bills, so rent
(13:11):
or mortgage, your electricbills, your utility bills, your
phone bill, cable bill, whateverit is.
If you have car payments,that's we're going to go here
under bills those things thathave to be paid every month, no
matter what.
They're always going to bethere.
I usually say my rule of thumbis these are things you can't
impulse buy.
So these are the things, whereit is what it is.
(13:33):
Maybe it fluctuates, like yourelectric bill or water bill, but
you're not going to go outthere and be like man.
I really want to buy some extrawater and just go run your
faucet right.
These are the fixed expenses.
The next account we want is aspending account.
This is those variable expenses.
Then the next account we wantis a spending account.
This is those variable expenses.
This is the things you spendmoney on where maybe you could
go over budget groceries, gas,maybe it's restaurants, it's
(13:56):
clothing, it's entertainment Allof those other things go into
this spending account.
The beauty of this is, whenyou're making those day-to-day
decisions, you can look at yourbank account and see how am I
doing financially in thisaccount, knowing that your bills
are covered.
If you've ever been caught inthat scenario where you thought
a bill got paid and it didn't,or you forgot about a recurring
(14:18):
expense and all of a sudden yourbank account goes into the
negative because yesterday youwent out to eat, this will solve
that, because your bills are ina different account and now you
have a spending account justfor that spending and you can
keep a really good pulse andwhen you look at that account,
you literally can see how muchyou have to spend and not have
to worry about doing mentalgymnastics trying to figure out
(14:39):
okay, well, when's this billcoming out?
Has this bill already come out?
You're not going to be caughtin that crosshair anymore.
And then the third account webelieve in is a savings account.
We want this to be youremergency fund.
You can have multiple savingsaccounts if you're saving for
something like a vacation or acar, but having a savings
account Now, we're big believersin having two different budgets
(15:00):
, two different snapshots.
We call them survive and thrivebudgets.
So a survive budget is whatdoes it cost in your household
to cover your bare minimumexpenses?
And then thrive budget is whatdoes it cost to live your ideal
lifestyle where your kids aredoing all their sports
activities, where you can go outto eat a few times a week.
So you're getting to do all thethings that you want to do.
(15:21):
What do those look like?
How much do we need to earn inorder to do that survive budget?
How much do we need to earn inorder to do that thrive budget
Having these?
Then we can take that back toyour therapy practice and figure
out what does the practice needto be paying you in order to
not be stressed and scraping byanymore and in order to pay you
what you really the lifestyleyou really want Because that's
(15:41):
why we started business in thefirst place is typically for
more time and more money and tolive that lifestyle that you've
always wanted, that working forsomeone else just didn't afford
you All right.
Step three is flexibility andsustainability.
I spoke about it earlier, butextremism and rigidness can
sometimes work.
I'm going to say usuallydoesn't work for people Now a
(16:04):
lot of people.
Again, going back to DaveRamsey, he's the greatest
example of this extremist Cause.
If you've listened to his show,it's very you do it this way
and if you don't, then you'redoing it wrong.
It's great for a lot of people.
Some people need to go extremeor they're not going to be
successful.
Some people, like I, need to gopedal to the metal and focus on
it so that I can get this outof the way and then I can go
(16:24):
back to my life.
But I know for us and you knowas as I have kids now when we
got out of debt we didn't havekids, so it was a little bit
easier for us to go to extreme.
But I'm thinking now, as I havekids who are currently, you
know, eight and nine years old,and I think back to when they
were toddlers if I was goingthrough this process when they
were two and three, I wouldn'twant to miss out on those years,
(16:49):
being able to go, do things andexperience life with them in
those years.
I wouldn't want to miss that,and so I would have to find some
balance.
Now, of course, you can dothings and make memories Not
everything has to cost money butalso I want to be able to do
stuff and I want to be able tonot feel like I missed out on
those years because I'm workingextra hours every night trying
to pay off this debt and goextreme.
(17:11):
So make sure what you're doingis balanced, it's not too rigid
or too extreme.
You know yourself.
Are you somebody who's going toquit if it's too much, or are
you somebody who needs it to betoo much like a whole lot, so
that you stay laser focused?
Find your balance.
Where are you in life?
All of those things dictatewhat you should be doing and how
(17:32):
quickly, and how all in youshould be.
You don't have to grind or giveup everything, it's just
finding your balance.
Once you have those three keys,you're going to feel more
confident, more in control.
Money stress is no longer goingto creep into your day-to-day
life and you're going to feelmore confident, more in control.
Money stress is no longer goingto creep into your day-to-day
life and you're going to feelfinancially prepared for
emergencies.
(17:52):
This is the key.
Again, money is emotional and Iknow these are all simple I've
said that multiple, multipletimes but they're not easy.
Our team we have a team ofcoaches, and that's what we
specialize in is taking thesekind of simple ideas that I just
outlined and helping put itinto practice.
(18:12):
Helping you create a customplan to actually have that
system in place, a plan that isproactive and a plan that sticks
, one that is flexible andsustainable.
That's what we do.
I mean, imagine, 30 days fromnow, having that plan in your
own personal finances, one thatyou have buy-in in, one that is
balanced and where you're ableto still do some life with your
(18:34):
family and your friends and yourkids, while also making huge
progress on your goals.
If that is what you have beenlooking for, we would love to
meet with you and show you howit's possible.
In the description, as always,is a link to meet with one of
our coaches.
It's a free 20-minute call wherewe're just going to get to know
you and see is our program agood fit for you, and you can
(18:55):
ask as many questions as youhave to learn about our program
and what we can do to help youfinally make these changes in
your personal finances and tomake a positive change in your
life.
Whatever you do, I recommendyou take action.
The worst place you can be isin that land of the middle of
like.
I wish things would change, butwe're not going anywhere.
We're just spinning our wheels.
(19:15):
So take what I talked abouttoday and put it into practice,
and if you are lost or stuck andyou don't know what to do,
schedule that free call with oneof our coaches and we'll get
you some help.
Thanks for joining us on theTherapy Business Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview and share it with a
practice owner that you may knowIf your practice needs help
(19:36):
getting organized with itsfinances or just growing your
practice, head totherapybusinesspodcom to learn
how we can help.
I know firsthand how being stressed about your
personal finances can leak intoyour business.
Sometimes the anxiety we havearound where we stand
financially budgeting debt,whatever it is that we're
struggling with it can affectour day-to-day operations in the
business and affect us asbusiness owners.
It can make us make emotionaldecisions and do things that
(00:23):
maybe we wouldn't do normallybecause we are trying so
desperately to get more moneyhome and into our personal bank
accounts.
Well, sometimes the solution tothis is to generate more
revenue in the business so thatwe can pay ourselves more, and
to get organized on the businessside so that the business can
afford to pay us biggerpaychecks and we have plenty of
episodes on that.
But today I'm going to talkabout the personal finance side
(00:46):
of how can you break thepaycheck to paycheck cycle
without giving up everythingthat you love.
My name is Craig and I'm theowner of Daisy Financial
Coaching.
Our team is on a mission tomake your therapy practice
permanently profitable.
If you own a solo or grouppractice, we're here to help you
build a business that createsmore time, makes more money and
(01:07):
serves more people.
This is the Therapy BusinessPodcast.
Something that I think we oftenforget is that money is
emotional.
It's easy to look at it asnumbers on a spreadsheet or
dollars in a bank account, buttruthfully it's emotional.
It's our family, it's our home.
(01:28):
To an extent, it can be ouridentity.
It's how the world measuressuccess and value.
Whether that's true or not, itis the standard that we put
ourselves against, and money isat the root of all of that.
Now, I'm not saying that's howit should be.
I don't think it should be thatway, but when we come down to
(01:49):
it and if we're trying toaddress this issue of getting
organized, getting clarity,breaking the check-to-check
cycle, we have to trulyunderstand what money is to us
and we have to try and realizethat it's not as simple as maybe
we've always thought it was.
Yes, fixing this might besimple on paper, but there's a
(02:10):
reason it's been challenging.
There's a reason that maybeyou've been stuck in this
hamster wheel cycle that's gonearound and around and haven't
been able to break free of it.
Money is emotional and when weare stressed about money, most
people are feeling unconfident.
They're feeling overworked andoverwhelmed.
They feel like they're on thebrink of burnout or just like
(02:31):
one emergency away fromimploding.
I don't know if any of thoseresonate with you.
I know they do with me.
I know that feeling when youdon't have enough money in your
bank account and you go to startthe car and there's just like a
little ping in the back of yourbrain of, oh my gosh, what if
it doesn't start, or what if thetire goes out, or what if
something happens?
Or I've had times where I'mafraid to check my email out of
(02:53):
fear that maybe a client's goingto cancel and because I'm so
stressed financially on thepersonal side that's leaking
into the business and I'mfreaking out over that.
I'm preemptively afraid to evenlook because if that happens
then great, I'm even in a biggerissue.
Now that's how we're feeling,but that can even lead us to
(03:15):
showing up differently in ourworld.
It can show up in ways likelosing sleep or maybe just not
even sleeping well.
Maybe you're not up all nightjust ruminating over the
financial issues, but maybeyou're just finding yourself
fatigued all the time.
We find a lot of times this isbecause our body is in that kind
of fight or flight stance andit's truthfully, it has a hard
(03:36):
time resting when we have thisanxiety leaking in the back of
our brain.
Our body is trying to keep ussafe, and so, therefore, we are
naturally not sleeping very well.
I mean, I've heard people say,if you're in danger, your body
would not be doing you justiceif it let you sleep.
And right now, if you're infinancial stress, you're sending
signals to the body that youare in danger, so it's keeping
(03:58):
you awake, it's keeping you fromsleeping too deeply.
A lot of times we feel likewe're robbing Peter to pay Paul.
We're working long hours justto make ends meet, and the way
it shows up for me is that mybody is present, but my mind
isn't.
My wife would always tell meshe's like where are you right
now?
You feel like you'vedisconnected, and she's not
wrong.
When I'm feeling money stress,I disconnect.
(04:19):
I can be sitting there playingwith my son or my daughter and
my body's there playing, but mybrain is a million miles away
and I know I know they pick upon it.
If any of these resonate withyou, just know that you're not
alone.
This is what we see all thetime.
When people come to meet with usas clients, when they come and
sit down with us for the firsttime, we hear them say things
(04:41):
like that.
We hear them talk about howtheir accounts are always in the
negative or they're livingpaycheck to paycheck, or they're
struggling to make things endsmeet, that things are a mess,
that they've never really beenable to stick to a system and
they've always made it toocomplicated.
Here's where the problemsometimes lies.
Is that what most people thinkis the solution isn't?
(05:01):
Sometimes we're thinking all Igot to do is make more money and
then the problem will be solved.
Maybe if I just cut all the funout of our budget?
Or maybe if we try thisbudgeting software.
Or hey, I've been listening tothis podcast or this book or
watching this YouTube channel orwhatever it is, and I'm getting
these ideas in my head and theythink that that's the solution.
(05:22):
One of the most common ones isgoing to the extreme.
There are financial gurus outthere like Dave Ramsey, who you
know.
I'm not dogging on Dave Ramsey.
I think his methodology worksfor a lot of people.
We used his plan to getourselves out of debt and to get
ourselves on a budget.
However, I do know, as I'vebeen doing this business, that a
lot of people come to us andthey've failed because of that
(05:43):
extreme level.
If you're not familiar, daveRamsey is very big on what he
would call scorched earth.
You don't spend a dime anywhere, you don't go out to eat, you
don't do anything.
You focus all your money ondebt and you focus on paying
debt off immediately first.
And what can often happen withthat is sometimes people burn
out.
People don't quite make it tothe end.
(06:05):
They have tried it.
They realize maybe their kidsare you know.
They're bouncing back and forthbetween soccer and volleyball
and baseball practice and theyhave to go to a drive-through
and then they throw up theirhands and give up because it is
just too challenging.
So that scorched earthmethodology doesn't work for
everyone.
It can lead to burnout.
Earning more money doesn'talways solve the problem.
(06:26):
It can.
Oftentimes our behaviors willexpand with the money.
If we have more money, we'rejust gonna start spending more
and we're gonna be frustrated.
We've worked with clients whomake $25,000 a year and we've
worked with clients who makemore than $250,000 a year and
they are struggling with thesame issues.
So it does not have anything todo with money.
(06:46):
Yes, more income can help a lotof things, but if we don't
address the deeper root problem,it's not going to solve
anything.
And then budgeting, softwaresand things like that.
Those are just tools that wecan use, but we need a system
under that.
So I'm going to guide youthrough what we call just the
three keys to solving thispaycheck to paycheck cycle.
(07:06):
And I'm going to warn you,these are going to sound really
simple.
They're going to sound probablyalmost obvious to you, but what
I'm going to challenge you onthis is yes, they may sound
simple and obvious, but whatwe're going to look deep into
ourselves with is, if it's sosimple, if it's so obvious, why
am I struggling with it?
Why have I not been able to doit?
And oftentimes, because it's sosimple and because it's so
(07:29):
obvious, we start beatingourselves up and we start
talking down on ourselves andthinking negatively on ourselves
because why can't I do this?
It's not hard.
What am I struggling with?
So just know they're simple andobvious and you're not alone,
because just because it's simpledoesn't mean that it's easy.
Step one is to be proactive withyour finances.
Our natural tendency is to bereactive.
(07:52):
When money's good, we spend.
When money's tight, we stressout.
So this is kind of how we goabout it we look at our bank
account to make decisions as themonth starts coming to a close
and we're getting closer andcloser to our next paycheck, we
look down and we start freakingout because money's getting
tight.
So we tell everyone no morespending money.
We just did this a couplemonths ago.
I told my family I was like weare not going out to eat again
(08:13):
until the month starts becausewe had just gone crazy going out
to eat.
To be proactive, we have to havegoals.
What are we trying to achieve?
What are we trying to do?
What is that carrot that we'rerunning toward?
What do we really want?
And just saying I want to getout of debt or I want to be more
in control of my money, yeah,that's great.
But realistically, what do wewant?
(08:33):
Do we want to be able to goshopping and not have to stress
about what we have in theaccount?
We want to be able to takethose vacations multiple times a
year.
Maybe you want to quit your joband you want to get your
finances stable enough so thatyou can leave and maybe take
another job somewhere else orjust go to a single income
household.
Whatever it is.
What do you want?
(08:53):
That's key.
We have to have that in mind inorder to be proactive, and then
budgeting is great, but what isit supporting?
So this kind of goes back tothat carrot.
Budgeting is challenging.
You're gonna have great monthsand you're gonna have really,
really difficult months, and toget through those difficult
months, we have to know whywe're doing this.
(09:14):
What is really the core point?
Now, like I said, this soundscrazy simple.
Right, just be proactive.
Right, hey, just get ahead ofit.
Stop reacting to everything.
Just have a plan.
Sounds simple, but here's thething this is a skill that needs
to be developed.
No one is born proactive withmoney.
No one is born with this, justin their DNA.
(09:36):
It's something that we have tobe taught and unfortunately, in
America, we are not taught thisat an early age.
Our parents weren't taught this, their parents weren't taught
this, and so we are usuallythrust into the world to figure
this out on our own, and thepeople who are teaching us these
things are the banks and thecredit card companies and
(09:57):
commercials and all of thoseitems or people that we find on
YouTube who maybe are spoutingout bad information.
We don't know.
We're learning it from allthese outside sources and then,
all of a sudden, we realize wedon't have the skills to put
some of these things into place.
Even if it was good informationthat we're hearing, it's a
skill that needs to be developed, that takes practice.
(10:18):
That means, if you feel likeyou are bad with money which I
don't think anyone's bad withmoney but if you're like you
know, I'm just bad with it, I'mnot good with money yet we're
going to get you there.
It's that growth mindset piece.
How do we get there?
Once we are proactive, once wehave this idea of what are you
running to and that's going tobe a homework assignment for you
.
If you don't know why you wantto get your money together,
(10:41):
write it down.
What does life look like foryou on the other side of this?
What are you trying to do?
What do you want to do withyour family?
What do you want to do withyour kids?
Do you want to vacation more?
Do you want to just be able toorder whatever you want on
Amazon without worrying aboutyour bank account?
What is it that you want toachieve at nicer restaurants and
(11:02):
not get a heart attack when thebill comes or feel like you
can't order a second drink.
Figure out what that is, writeit down so that you know.
Deep down.
It's what a lot of people calltheir quote unquote why.
Why are we doing this?
Step two is to have a system.
Again, sounds obvious, but 69%of people in America have less
than $1,000 in savings.
That's according to Forbes.
And according to CNBC, 34% have$0 in their savings accounts.
(11:26):
72% of people have no moneyplan at all, according to
Charles Schwab.
So we talk about having asystem.
That sounds so easy, it soundsso simple, but we're not doing
it.
Most people aren't doing it.
Budgeting by itself isn'tenough.
So what is that plan that we'regoing to follow in order to
(11:47):
make all these things happen?
We want to keep it simple.
We want to leverage yourbehavior.
What are you already doing?
We already talked about it.
When we're reactive, we'relooking at our bank account how
much money do I have?
And then we're making decisionsbased on that.
We are believers in having.
We are believers in utilizingwhat we're already doing to get
ourselves organized.
(12:07):
If you've listened to previousepisodes of this podcast, I talk
a lot about doing that in yourbusiness through a system called
Profit First.
We have personal financecoaches on our team who work
with individuals and theirpersonal finances and they teach
them to utilize multiple bankaccounts.
I'm going to share the threethat we genuinely believe every
person should have, and a lot ofpeople like to have more, but
(12:28):
we think at least having threeis going to really help give you
some clarity With that, though.
Budgeting software some of youmay be trying to use every
dollar.
Some of you may be trying touse Monarch money, or you need a
budget, and those are awesome.
They're very good, but actuallyapplying it is where we need
something deeper than that.
So you, that's kind of a like Isaid before, it's a tool.
(12:50):
Those are tools to help you,but if you don't have a system
below that, then it's reallyreally difficult to get those up
and off the ground.
So, with that, a system for yourpersonal finances, we believe
in three core accounts.
We want to have a bills account.
This is for all your recurringbills, your fixed bills, so rent
(13:11):
or mortgage, your electricbills, your utility bills, your
phone bill, cable bill, whateverit is.
If you have car payments,that's we're going to go here
under bills those things thathave to be paid every month, no
matter what.
They're always going to bethere.
I usually say my rule of thumbis these are things you can't
impulse buy.
So these are the things, whereit is what it is.
(13:33):
Maybe it fluctuates, like yourelectric bill or water bill, but
you're not going to go outthere and be like man.
I really want to buy some extrawater and just go run your
faucet right.
These are the fixed expenses.
The next account we want is aspending account.
This is those variable expenses.
Then the next account we wantis a spending account.
This is those variable expenses.
This is the things you spendmoney on where maybe you could
go over budget groceries, gas,maybe it's restaurants, it's
(13:56):
clothing, it's entertainment Allof those other things go into
this spending account.
The beauty of this is, whenyou're making those day-to-day
decisions, you can look at yourbank account and see how am I
doing financially in thisaccount, knowing that your bills
are covered.
If you've ever been caught inthat scenario where you thought
a bill got paid and it didn't,or you forgot about a recurring
(14:18):
expense and all of a sudden yourbank account goes into the
negative because yesterday youwent out to eat, this will solve
that, because your bills are ina different account and now you
have a spending account justfor that spending and you can
keep a really good pulse andwhen you look at that account,
you literally can see how muchyou have to spend and not have
to worry about doing mentalgymnastics trying to figure out
(14:39):
okay, well, when's this billcoming out?
Has this bill already come out?
You're not going to be caughtin that crosshair anymore.
And then the third account webelieve in is a savings account.
We want this to be youremergency fund.
You can have multiple savingsaccounts if you're saving for
something like a vacation or acar, but having a savings
account Now, we're big believersin having two different budgets
(15:00):
, two different snapshots.
We call them survive and thrivebudgets.
So a survive budget is whatdoes it cost in your household
to cover your bare minimumexpenses?
And then thrive budget is whatdoes it cost to live your ideal
lifestyle where your kids aredoing all their sports
activities, where you can go outto eat a few times a week.
So you're getting to do all thethings that you want to do.
(15:21):
What do those look like?
How much do we need to earn inorder to do that survive budget?
How much do we need to earn inorder to do that thrive budget
Having these?
Then we can take that back toyour therapy practice and figure
out what does the practice needto be paying you in order to
not be stressed and scraping byanymore and in order to pay you
what you really the lifestyleyou really want Because that's
(15:41):
why we started business in thefirst place is typically for
more time and more money and tolive that lifestyle that you've
always wanted, that working forsomeone else just didn't afford
you All right.
Step three is flexibility andsustainability.
I spoke about it earlier, butextremism and rigidness can
sometimes work.
I'm going to say usuallydoesn't work for people Now a
(16:04):
lot of people.
Again, going back to DaveRamsey, he's the greatest
example of this extremist Cause.
If you've listened to his show,it's very you do it this way
and if you don't, then you'redoing it wrong.
It's great for a lot of people.
Some people need to go extremeor they're not going to be
successful.
Some people, like I, need to gopedal to the metal and focus on
it so that I can get this outof the way and then I can go
(16:24):
back to my life.
But I know for us and you knowas as I have kids now when we
got out of debt we didn't havekids, so it was a little bit
easier for us to go to extreme.
But I'm thinking now, as I havekids who are currently, you
know, eight and nine years old,and I think back to when they
were toddlers if I was goingthrough this process when they
were two and three, I wouldn'twant to miss out on those years,
(16:49):
being able to go, do things andexperience life with them in
those years.
I wouldn't want to miss that,and so I would have to find some
balance.
Now, of course, you can dothings and make memories Not
everything has to cost money butalso I want to be able to do
stuff and I want to be able tonot feel like I missed out on
those years because I'm workingextra hours every night trying
to pay off this debt and goextreme.
(17:11):
So make sure what you're doingis balanced, it's not too rigid
or too extreme.
You know yourself.
Are you somebody who's going toquit if it's too much, or are
you somebody who needs it to betoo much like a whole lot, so
that you stay laser focused?
Find your balance.
Where are you in life?
All of those things dictatewhat you should be doing and how
(17:32):
quickly, and how all in youshould be.
You don't have to grind or giveup everything, it's just
finding your balance.
Once you have those three keys,you're going to feel more
confident, more in control.
Money stress is no longer goingto creep into your day-to-day
life and you're going to feelmore confident, more in control.
Money stress is no longer goingto creep into your day-to-day
life and you're going to feelfinancially prepared for
emergencies.
(17:52):
This is the key.
Again, money is emotional and Iknow these are all simple I've
said that multiple, multipletimes but they're not easy.
Our team we have a team ofcoaches, and that's what we
specialize in is taking thesekind of simple ideas that I just
outlined and helping put itinto practice.
(18:12):
Helping you create a customplan to actually have that
system in place, a plan that isproactive and a plan that sticks
, one that is flexible andsustainable.
That's what we do.
I mean, imagine, 30 days fromnow, having that plan in your
own personal finances, one thatyou have buy-in in, one that is
balanced and where you're ableto still do some life with your
(18:34):
family and your friends and yourkids, while also making huge
progress on your goals.
If that is what you have beenlooking for, we would love to
meet with you and show you howit's possible.
In the description, as always,is a link to meet with one of
our coaches.
It's a free 20-minute call wherewe're just going to get to know
you and see is our program agood fit for you, and you can
(18:55):
ask as many questions as youhave to learn about our program
and what we can do to help youfinally make these changes in
your personal finances and tomake a positive change in your
life.
Whatever you do, I recommendyou take action.
The worst place you can be isin that land of the middle of
like.
I wish things would change, butwe're not going anywhere.
We're just spinning our wheels.
(19:15):
So take what I talked abouttoday and put it into practice,
and if you are lost or stuck andyou don't know what to do,
schedule that free call with oneof our coaches and we'll get
you some help.
Thanks for joining us on theTherapy Business Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview and share it with a
practice owner that you may knowIf your practice needs help
(19:36):
getting organized with itsfinances or just growing your
practice, head totherapybusinesspodcom to learn
how we can help.
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